Cleaning sheets formed from short fibers, or filaments, are conventionally used as a dusting or cleaning agent. In particular, a conventional disposable cleaning sheet has a wiping surface area formed from nonwoven fabric consisting of relatively short fibers. The cleaning sheets may be attached to a cleaning tool such as a mop or similar device, or used by hand.
However, the conventional disposable cleaning sheet is not very effective for capturing relatively large dust particles, and the fibers have a tendency to fall out of the cleaning sheet, thereby further reducing the effectiveness. These problems arise from the use of relatively short fibers in the nonwoven fabric.
Another disadvantage of conventional cleaning sheets is that they have relatively hard or "scratchy" wiping surfaces. As a consequence, when the object to be cleaned, such as furniture or other household effect having a soft or painted surface, is wiped with force using a conventional cleaning sheet there is a possibility that the surface will be scratched. In addition, since the wiping area of conventional cleaning sheets is flat, the dirt and dust adheres mostly to the peripheral portions of the cleaning sheet when in use so that the middle area of the cleaning sheet surface is not effectively used.
One example of a disposable wiping tool, described in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei-9-135798, includes a cleaning sheet that contains a base sheet having a surface layer of filaments which are relatively longer than the short fibers of conventional cleaning sheets. The filaments are bonded to the base sheet at fusion-bonding lines and are also maintained in the sheet using intermittently arranged wires, resulting in a cleaning surface that is not flat. The use of longer fibers and wires helps to prevent the filaments from falling out. However, this wiping tool has difficulty capturing larger dust particles. Furthermore, while filaments disposed at the uppermost region of the surface layer can capture dust during use, filaments disposed near the bottom of the surface layer (near to the base sheet) are not utilized effectively.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to have a cleaning sheet which effectively captures both large and small particles of dust, is soft enough to prevent the scratching of a surface to be cleaned, uses a greater surface area of the surface layer, and has a decreased tendency to lose the fibers which form the cleaning surface.